


Born to Strange Sights

by clutzycricket



Series: Clock Don't Stop [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 06:36:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6363391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clutzycricket/pseuds/clutzycricket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brienne Tarth is used to her rooftop games, even if her best friend thinks she might be a bit of a doormat.</p><p>Then things get a bit complicated...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born to Strange Sights

Brienne liked teaching, she really did. Well, she liked the teaching part. The administrative part usually involved lots of long, speaking looks to Rhaenys Targaryen, the art teacher, or the surprisingly nice Walda Frey, who taught kindergarten and had a husband who possibly ate souls.

(She blamed Renly for putting the thought in her head. Renly had begged her to pretend they were going on a date when they had an informal teacher social, because Cersei was being pushy and, well, she’d heard Robert’s opinions on sexuality, so protecting the boy who’d kept her safe from bullies only seemed fair. 

Even if it had taken a while to get over a deeply, deeply embarrassing crush. And Rhaenys’ now-ex girlfriend turned out to be Cersei’s cousin, though their had been mutual silence.)

“Hey, Xena,” Walda said, smoothing her brightly patterned skirt. She was the sort of woman who probably mastered the art of Pinterest and accessorizing without much effort, and should have made Brienne feel even more ungainly and awkward then she did. The secret comics nerd thing, not to mention her alarmingly good nose for picking out bullied students, made it hard. “Did you see the new teacher?”

Brienne shook her head. “The one replacing Ms. Whent?” she asked. The woman had been a mainstay of the school, but a recent cancer diagnosis had left her to stay with her younger brother for a while.

“Mmm, Lucas Blackwood,” Walda said, a sweetly pink smile on her round face. “If I wasn’t happily married…”

Brienne blushed. “ _Walda_!” she said, in a strangled voice.

“What? He’s hot, I’m not dead, and you and Rhae are getting dreadfully boring, you know,” Walda said, with the frankness of a woman who had been raised with a great deal of feminine sexuality on display.

“Excuse me?” Rhaenys said, managing to be terribly sneaky for a woman with no magical gift for illusions. “I’m doing perfectly fine, thank you.”

“Sweetie,” Walda said earnestly, “I still don’t even know if he’s _real_.”

“Oh, he’s real all right,” Rhaenys said, a cat-like smile on her face. “Very, very… _real_.”

Brienne blushed and took that as her cue to scurry out, only to find the path blocked by a man their age who was actually taller than her.

And by that she meant she walked into him and nearly bounced off of him and onto her rear.

“Hello, Lucas!” Rhaenys said, biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing. “How are you?”

“Fine- hello, sorry about that, miss, I should have been paying more attention…” he stumbled. 

“The school’s seen worse,” Walda said, a faint, innocent smile on her face. “Well, I have to get ready for the little turtledoves, so, Lucas Blackwood, this is Brienne Tarth, she has the room next to yours. I’m sure you will both get along wonderfully.”

~

“Oracle to Huntress,” said a slightly snarky voice, and Brienne adjusted her position on the fire escape, which was rough, slightly rusted, and provided a perfect vantage point of the window she needed to watch.

“Are you still bitter about this?” Brienne asked. “Because you said you would help.”

“Yes, well, Renly should get off his lazy fucking…” Rhaenys sighed. “Look, Brienne. I know Renly is your friend, but he shouldn’t have dumped this on your lap. There are only a few reasons for dumping this on your lap I can think of, and none of them reflect well on him.”

This was a suspected smuggling ring for illegal magical plants and herbs, and while Rhaenys was probably right, Brienne still felt like she had to do something. “R… Oracle, which we need to change, because I am not getting sued by DC,” Brienne started. “I’m not from a Warden family, or a Whitecloak, but I am the Evenstar in Waiting, and that does mean something. To me, at least. And I can do this, but you said you’d help.”

“I still want to make Renly miserable later,” Rhaenys sighed. “He uses you. And I’ve got the mirror.”

Sometimes it was nice having a friend who was a Seer and a mirror witch, Brienne had to admit. 

Fifteen minutes later, they confirmed that the man in question was selling illegal magical herbs, imported as inconspicuous nonmagical cousins. 

Also, he was really, really disgusting.

Rhaenys sighed. “I’m going to wash my mirrors with bleach and blast Blacklight after this, maybe some Zeppelin,” she said. “Or replay you kicking him a lot. That works too.”

“That isn’t the point,” Brienne said, preparing herself to make the leap across the street. “The point is he needs to be stopped.”

“True, but the visuals make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” Rhaenys said, and Brienne huffed before she launched herself onto the roof of the other building, feeling her arms protest a bit at holding her weight as she eased over the edge into the roof.j

“Hello,” came a very familiar voice, and there was a tall man in a black jacket and a shadowy mask over his face.

“Hi,” Brienne said, trying not to sound terribly confused. Was he a guard they missed?

“Are you trying to get this idiot too?” he asked, and there was a hint of a smile under the shadows.

“Yes,” Brienne said, drawing out the word. She could hear Rhaenys valiantly trying not to giggle through the mirror on a chain around her throat.

“Team up?” he asked, and Brienne answered with a bright, fierce smile.

The man, a Spicer who clearly had a paranoid streak, went down with a fight, trying to go after Brienne with a knife, earning him a broken wrist, and giving the man a bruise on his face.

But he did go down, and Brienne watched as the Whitecloaks walked up the stairs to take over, and the stranger went- slightly ungracefully- over the roof across the city.

She sighed and promised herself a hot shower and some of that good bruise cream.

~

She walked down the hallway to her classroom, holding the largest coffee cup that Dancy Grey could make. (And yes, she knew what else Dancy did for money, but Dancy’s coffee could possibly raise the dead, and she’d fight anyone who commented on it in her hearing.)

“Hello,” Lucas Blackwood said, and her head snapped up. He had a spectacular bruise on the side of his face, right where Rolph Spicer had hit the stranger.

He noticed her staring and looked sheepish, touching the bruise. “Bicycle accident,” he lied, and Brienne raised her eyebrows.

“Mmm,” she said, because she was horrible at trying to think of subtle ways of hinting at things. How _did_ you hint that someone might be a magical vigilante?

She might ask Rhaenys for help with this one.

He was nice to work with, after all.

 


End file.
